The Strange Dr. Weird (1944-45) aired “Journey into the Unknown” on November 21, 1944 as its 3rd episode out of 29. We have run only five earlier episodes of this show since 2018, the last being August of 2020. The show ran from November of 1944 through May of 1945 in short 15-minute episodes (a few minutes less without commercials), and was dubbed by some as a poor man’s Mysterious Traveler. Indeed, there are similarities between the shows, though MT had a much longer run of nine years (1943-52) and was a full half-hour program. Maurice Tarplin (photo at right, 1911-1975) was the host/narrator for both shows, and one of the writers for MT, Robert A. Arthur (photo lower right, 1909-1969), also penned the scripts for The Strange Dr. Weird. While MT‘s shows included tales of mystery and suspense along with SF and the supernatural, The Strange Dr. Weird concentrated mostly on the supernatural. Both shows opened with the narrator setting the stage with a tease for what was to follow, but where MT stories were told in conversation while on a train and ended with the narrator beginning another story only to stop when the unnamed passenger to whom the story was being told had to get off, The Strange Dr. Weird ends with a variation on the same gimmick, the narrator beginning a story just as his “guest” has to leave. As you might imagine, with actual story lengths running to around a scant 12 minutes, there’s not much room for characterization or extraneous detail, so only the essentials are conveyed–the idea or dilemma takes center stage and remains front and center. And there is always an unexpected twist at the end, providing the moral comeuppance knife in the heart for the bad guy or evil doer. Short and to the creepy point, there’s no lavish musical score or expensive production values here, the quintessential organ riffs manipulating and accentuating listener emotion at the proper moments in conjunction with the plights of the actors.

“Journey into the Unknown” tells the tale of young Dr. Drake, who has been experimenting for years to find a serum to extend the human lifespan. He has endured and persevered through 16 heartbreaking failures, but now, with this 17th trial he is sure of his success. Of course, and as these stories go, he decides to try it on himself first. How will it turn out? Will this time prove to be a success and his gift to humankind finally realized? You will soon discover the truth if you dare listen to this creepy, violent little tale of a scientist who believes his dream might finally be achieved with his never-before-tested 17th experimental serum. It is also a lot of fun and is the perfect length for this rather cheesy take on an old theme. Enjoy.

Play Time: 12:10

{“Journey into the Unknown” aired on a Tuesday evening on November 21, 1944, a mere two days before Thanksgiving. Looking forward to the all-too-brief Turkey Day holiday they had planned ahead and had made a trip to the nearby newsstand the weekend before to make sure they had enough reading material to last them until the following Monday. Astounding SF (1930-present, now Analog) was a given to grab up on first sight, and this issue proved why for it included the first appearance of Theodore Sturgeon;s classic “Killdozer,” the novella that in 1974 would be turned into a made for TV movie. Astounding was a monthly in 1944. fantastic Adventures (1939-53) was founded by the ubiquitous magazine publisher and editor Raymond A. Palmer as a companion magazine to Amazing Stories. One source has it that it ran easy to digest and rather easily forgotten fantasy adventure fare at its beginning, but by the late ’40s the only difference between it and Amazing was that its stories were even more…fantastic. It was a quarterly in 1944. Planet Stories (1939-55) was much-beloved for its colorful and highly imaginative page-turning stories, publishing some of the most popular authors of the day (notice Ray Bradbury’s name on the cover below). Leigh Brackett practically made Startling Stories her short fiction home in the 1940s, and Bradbury wasn’t far behind. Other familiar names appearing within its pages include Henry Kuttner, John D. MacDonald, Fredric Brown, Margaret St. Clair, Poul Anderson, E. Hoffman Price, and Theodore Sturgeon, to name but a few. Fans and collectors look back on Planet Stories fondly, remembering it for its pure entertainment value and not for any type of “message” fiction. It too was a quarterly in 1944.]

[Left: Astounding, Nov. 1944 – Center: fantastic Adventures, Oct. 1944 – Right: Planet Stories, Winter 1944]

To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.